Ending Displacement as a Way of Life: Climate Risk and Human Mobility

The International Foundation for the Displaced (IFD) is a newly establishing foundation. Its vision is a world where losing your home does not mean losing your future. Its mission is to end displacement as a way of life. Where displacement can be foreseen, IFD seeks to help people move early, safely and by choice. Where it cannot, IFD seeks to reduce its duration. In every case, IFD seeks to confer agency as quickly as possible. IFD identifies gaps that existing institutions cannot currently fill, evaluates approaches with partners and transfers successful work to permanent operators. Existing institutions hold distinct responsibilities for refugees, internally displaced people, migrants affected by forced movement and stateless people. IFD defines one outcome across those categories: displacement should not become a prolonged condition. Some problems cross the categories, including interrupted access to money, connectivity, qualifications and social protection;unsafe routes to work;and failures when responsibility passes between institutions. IFD proposes to address shared problems while established organizations retain their authority and delivery roles. Climate-related displacement pressures can develop for years before people move. Regional scenarios can help communities, public authorities and investors identify earlier investments that preserve livelihoods and ecosystems, maintain essential services, prepare destination areas or make necessary movement safer. Other proposed work includes anticipatory funding, financial continuity, portable qualifications and protections, safe labor mobility, support for local and displaced-led organizations, and technology developed with people affected by displacement. IFD is backed by The Vine, a private, invitation-only global network of 13,000 members. At a time when humanitarian institutions face severe funding pressure, we will provide a discrete bridge to flexible private capital and direct connections across finance, technology, philanthropy and public institutions. IFD will combine those resources with the operating knowledge and safeguards of established partners. This 90-minute, invitation-only roundtable will be a working session for 30 participants. IFD will present its proposed scope and initial program areas, then seek critical feedback on its assumptions and potential contribution. Participants may include 3 to 7 Vine members, prospective funding and implementation partners, and people with lived experience of displacement or statelessness, including representatives of displaced-led organizations. The session will identify possible areas for further design and partnership. It will not request funding or formal commitments. Everyone has a project they wanted to work on....but could not. What is yours?